[Maxatar]

It should not come as a surprise. While it's a bit of a simplification, index funds are effectively a representation of the average surviving investor...that is among all investors, index funds are the average of those who have not yet gone broke. The investors who have gone broke get culled out.

So it should not at all be surprising that index funds perform better than the average investor.

Furthermore, as far as agility is concerned, it doesn't play much of a role in the market. Almost all gains in the stock market over the course of a year come from a handful of days. For example in 2024, just 9 days account for the entire yearly gains.